Dominion to pay fine, cut pollution at Somerset plant

CHICAGO (AP) — Dominion Energy will pay a $3.4 million penalty to resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations at coal-fired power plants in Illinois, Indiana and Massachusetts.

The settlement announced Monday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department calls for Virginia-based Dominion to reduce air pollution at its Kincaid, Ill., and Somerset, Mass., plants, and to permanently retire its State Line, Ind., plant.

The company also must spend $10 million on projects in nearby communities, including cutting locomotive pollution at Chicago rail yards and restoring land near the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

Dominion is selling its Somerset and Kincaid plants; it shuttered the State Line plant in 2012.

A Dominion spokesman says the company denies the pollution allegations.